NYC schools shift COVID response: No more ‘Situation Room’ or family letters about positive cases
New York City’s education department will “permanently close” the command center that collects reports of positive COVID cases among students and school staff, according to an email sent to principals on Tuesday. Along with the Dec. 23 closure of the “Situation Room,” families will no longer receive the automatically generated email notifications about cases in […]
Rising inflation adds $800M to cost of fully funding New York’s main school aid formula
New York school funding advocates have been looking forward to next year, when Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature are supposed to finish fully funding the state’s 15-year-old school funding formula, resulting in billions of more dollars for school districts statewide. But a new problem might put the money in jeopardy: Because of inflation, the […]
College funds for NYC’s kindergartners: How to get and give seed money for higher education
In January, all New York City’s public school kindergartners will receive a seed investment of $100 in their city-sponsored college savings accounts. It’s the second year that 5-year-olds citywide will automatically get the NYC Scholarship Accounts — a giant experiment aiming to help thousands of families who historically have faced steep barriers to postsecondary education. […]
NYC education department blocks ChatGPT on school devices, networks
New York City students and teachers can no longer access ChatGPT — the new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that generates stunningly cogent and lifelike writing — on education department devices or internet networks, agency officials confirmed Tuesday. The education department blocked access to the program, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety […]
Education issues to watch in Albany: School funding, mental health, future of mayoral control
As districts continue to recover from the academic and social-emotional impacts of the pandemic, New York state lawmakers will be pressed to address several issues facing schools during the new legislative session. Inflation has driven up the cost of finishing the long-awaited process of fully funding Foundation Aid, the state’s main school aid formula. As […]
As family homelessness climbs, calls grow louder for solving school attendance woes
Nine-year-old Ameerah remembers when her commute to school was a five-minute walk. That was before her family left their Queens home for a shelter in another part of the borough. During the year they lived in the shelter, Ameerah was at the bus stop with her mom and sister at 6:30 a.m., commuting at least […]
How one Chicago school social worker is grappling with COVID’s toll on students
Inside a staff bathroom at Piccolo Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side, Mary Difino wiped away tears and tried to catch her breath. It had been a long day in another stressful week. A spate of fights and a string of cyberbullying incidents among students two months into the school year had taken a toll […]
A unique Philadelphia school cultivates family members as staffers
Kimberly Singleton was the parent of a student at Overbrook Educational Center in West Philadelphia when she lost her job at a billing company. Already an active volunteer at the school, she jumped at the chance when she saw an ad in the school newsletter for a classroom assistant. Singleton got the job in February […]
